Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, May 12 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow’s Presnya district court on Saturday ruled to keep opposition activist blogger Alexei Navalny in custody, thus declining an appeal of his defence. Navalny was detained on May 9 for illegal actions in the so-called “public gathering.”

Earlier, the Presnya district court of justice sentenced Navalny to a fifteen-day administrative arrest under article 19.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offence (disobedience to lawful demands of a police officer).

Navalny does not recognize his guilt. “I offered no resistance and chanted out no slogans,” he said. In his words, he was just strolling around doing nothing wrong.

Police officers, however, said in their report that Navalny “refused to go to a bus, pushed away police officers and made fuss.” The court of justice ruled that Navalny’s guilt was confirmed by a police officer and there were no grounds not to trust the latter.

The Presnya district court found no reasons to cancel the decision on Navalny’s administrative arrest, which came into force.

Navalny was detained at about 06:00 a.m. Moscow time on Moscow’s Kudrinskaya Square near Barrikadnaya metro station. It was his fourth detention in recent days. After the three previous detentions, Navalny was awarded fines of up to 2,000 roubles and later released.